The Rage (Chapter 18)

Gabriel hadn’t stepped foot inside a vampire bar for at least the better part of a decade. He had dabbled in the sordid vampire culture when he had travelled to Milan. But it had taken him a few years to realise he didn’t actually enjoy the scene- he just felt like he was supposed to.

From the outside, Black Velvet looked dark and mysterious, with black panelling along the front and blacked out windows. The neon sign above the door was switched off. Ezra unlocked the door and Gabriel followed him through the empty, silent room. The red strip lighting under the bar and booths were the only sources of light. They headed through the back room and down an industrial-looking stairwell. The basement was slightly brighter, lit by two fluorescent strip lights. In the centre of the room was a large, round black table with three chairs. The one closest to them was occupied. Gabriel’s jaw clenched at the sight of the head of grey waves.

At the sound of their entrance, Silas turned in that easy way of his, like he didn’t have a care in the world. His bright blue eyes were like two glowing gas lights.

“Ezra,” he said in greeting. His deep voice rumbled, amplified by the surrounding concrete. His eyes slid from his progeny. “Gabriel.”

“Silas,” replied Gabriel, matching his cool, indifferent tone.

“It’s been a while. How are you keeping?”

The two of them stopped before him.

“I’m coping,” said Gabriel.

“Indeed.” Silas turned back to the table, an indication that the two of them should join him. “It is all we can do.”

“Where’s Dalia?” asked Ezra, looking between the two empty seats.

Silas sighed and gestured to the chair before Ezra. He sank down onto it.

“I’m afraid Dalia is no longer with us.”

Ezra’s brows furrowed. “She left? I know she wanted to travel to Iceland but I thought she’d at least say goodbye first.”

Silas shook his head. “That’s not what I meant.”

Realisation dawned on Ezra and he seemed to sink into himself.

Silas gestured to Gabriel, who was still lingering. “You might as well take her seat.”

“But, how? What happened?” Ezra was shaking his head, his voice suddenly sharp and accusatory.

Gabriel took the vacant seat, feeling like he was stepping on someone’s grave. He didn’t know Dalia personally, but it was just as hard to see the grief in Ezra’s eyes.

“I’m not too sure,” said Silas leaning back in his chair. He frowned slightly as he played with the fancy looking lighter in his hand, flicking the cap up and clicking it back shut. “She’s not answering her phone. Her flat is empty. Looks like no one’s been here for a few nights. There’s been some incidents in the city. Of vampires being… attacked.” He sucked on his teeth, his nose crinkling with contained anger. “Killed.”

Ezra didn’t even look like he heard him. His eyes were roving the table top, skittering like he was trying to solve a maths equation in his head. He shook his head slowly.

“She was killed?” His voice was barely a whisper.

“It appears so. Like you said, she wouldn’t just leave. She wouldn’t abandon this place.”

The muscles in his cheek flexed and he worked his jaw from side to side.

“So, people found out she was a vampire?” asked Gabriel after a heavy silence. Silas was watching his progeny. A sheen of pity glimmered in his ghostly eyes.

“This new diet has painted a target on our backs,” Silas drawled. His gaze sliding to Gabriel. “Once you’re in the system, it’s only a matter of time until some human takes matters into their own hands and starts striking off names.” He looked between the two of them. “They haven’t got you on there yet, have they?”

At this, Ezra’s eyes bugged. Both him and Gabriel gulped. They didn’t say anything, but there was no need to. Silas sighed heavily, clicking his lighter shut. His tanned, leathery thumb stayed firmly pressed onto the lid.

“How? How were you caught?”

Ezra shuffled in his chair; his hands stuffed into the pockets of his hoodie. His head was bent in subjugation, like a son being scolded for having a house party when his parents were out of town.

“A silver ring,” he lied, his pocketed hands flipping outwards as he shrugged. Of course, he wasn’t going to tell his Maker what had actually happened. That he had voluntarily bared his fangs to the village and revealed his true nature. It didn’t matter that he’d done it to protect Lillian and Gabriel. He had broken Silas’ rule. And when you broke Silas’ rule, you met a grizzly end.

Would Silas actually kill Ezra? Gabriel suddenly felt lightheaded. No, he wouldn’t kill him. He’d get one of Ezra’s brothers and sisters to do it for him.

Silas licked the top row of his squared, white teeth. His nostrils flared. The thumb pressed down on his lighter turned white with strain.

“How could you be so stupid? I taught you better than that,” Silas hissed. His eyes then slid to Gabriel. “What’s your excuse?”

Gabriel opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He cleared his throat. “I was refused entry into a house.”

Silas’ steely glare softened a fraction. “See, that I can understand. But a ring?” He cut back to Ezra. “That wouldn’t even trick a new-born.”

“I don’t know what to tell you.” Ezra shrugged again, but this time, he straightened up and met his Maker’s eyes. “It happened and now the truth is out and we’re on the system and we have our shitty little coupons so we can drink our shitty animal blood and that’s just the way life is now.”

An icy silence fell over them. Frozen; Silas stared at Ezra. His crystal blue eyes wide and burning with quelled rage. The fury tight in his features was so terrifying, Gabriel could barely look. But there was Ezra, staring right back at him. Defiance lowering his dark brows. His shoulders were squared. Hands no longer in his pockets, his arms were folded on the table.

Oh no. Not to him, Ezra. Anyone but him. Don’t do this. Not now.

The silence dragged. The basement was so deathly quiet, if they’d been human, Gabriel was sure they’d be hearing each other’s hearts beating.

The pressure of Silas’ thumb on the lighter lifted. An action so miniscule that in any other situation it would have gone unnoticed. Then the tightness in his jaw settled and he leaned back ever so slightly in his chair.

“How is the animal blood treating you?” Silas asked in a tone that was as close as conversational as his deep, gravelly voice could manage.

Ezra continued to stare. His eyes squinted a fraction, making his long eyelashes tremble.

“It’s okay,” Gabriel chimed in. He couldn’t stand the tension anymore. “It’s not as bad as we thought it’d be.”

Silas’ thin lips pulled up into something resembling a smile, and his eyes finally pulled free from his progeny and stuck to Gabriel. “That’s good to hear.”

From then on, the meeting resumed. Gabriel and Silas did most of the talking. They discussed what was happening with this ‘New Diet’. It seemed all European countries were following suit and there was a chance, if it was successful, it would be taken up by the rest of the world.

Ezra commented every now and again, in that grumbly, snappy tone he had recently adopted. Back slouched and arms folded high on his chest. To which Silas would acknowledge his contribution with a look and little else.

When Silas ended the meeting, Ezra said a quick goodbye and hurriedly stalked back up the stairwell.

“Gabriel.”

Gabriel paused on his way to follow Ezra out. Silas was standing by the table, his hands slotted into the pockets of his neatly pressed trousers. He crossed the floor to Gabriel. His strides leisurely but purposeful.

“I trust you will keep an eye on the lad,” he said, stopping before him. His eyes studied Gabriel’s face and there was a sadness in them that turned Gabriel’s stomach.

Gabriel nodded. At such close proximity, the ancient vampire was incredibly imposing. The ancient was an inch or so shorter than Gabriel, but he had an almost palpable aura of many lives lived.

Silas nodded back, placed his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder and met his eyes. With that look, he said everything without having to move his lips. And then the touch was gone, and he left. A lump lodged in Gabriel’s throat and pressure built behind his eyes. He turned to say… what? He didn’t know. But there was no one there. He was alone in the basement.

“You took your time.”

Gabriel shut the passenger side door and clipped in his seatbelt. Ezra was in the driver’s seat, checking his phone on his lap.

“Let’s just get back home,” Gabriel replied.

Ezra slipped his phone into his pocket, started the car and drove off without a word.

Gabriel just sat there in silence while his mind whirred. That touch. That look Silas gave him, it had calved him in two.

So that’s what it felt like to have a Maker?

Gabriel had entered that basement ready to sit there silently seething, staring daggers into the ancient. But once he had sat around the table that was forgotten. And he had left that basement with, dare he say it, respect for the man?

Silas’ words rang in his ears. They imprinted on his mind like a command.

Gabriel looked to Ezra, who was slouched back in his seat, driving with one hand down the empty city road.

“Are you okay?” Gabriel asked tentatively, then shook his head and looked to the road. Strong start.

“Never been better.”

“Are you sure?”

“I just want to get home.”

Gabriel sighed and thought for a moment. He needed to approach this topic delicately.

“You’ve been acting different lately,” he said.

Ezra’s eyes widened at the road in that yeah, obviously way. “There’s been a lot going on lately.”

“Silas is worried about you.”

Ezra arched an eyebrow and scoffed. “Yeah? And since when have you and Silas been the best of friends?”

Gabriel studied his profile; the tightness of his jaw, the flickering of his eyes.

“I’m worried about you,” he said.

“Well, there’s no need to. I’m fine,” Ezra gritted out.

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am.”

“No, you’re-”

“Since when did you know me better than I know myself?” Ezra cut across him and pinned him with a glare.

“Since I know something’s wrong with you but you’re refusing to talk about it. You can talk to me, Ezra. You know I’m always here for you.”

Ezra pressed down harder on the gas and Gabriel grabbed his seatbelt when he saw the dial go past sixty.

“Ezra,” Gabriel cautioned.

Ezra now had two hands on the wheel, his knuckles bone white. His eyes were ahead, looking somehow focused and distant at the same time.

The dial pushed past sixty-five. “Ezra.”

There were no other cars on the main road and luckily, the road was straight. But the look in his eyes had Gabriel feeling like Ezra was almost hoping he’d lose control of the car.

The dial pushed past seventy. Gabriel’s back pressed against the seat. “Ezra, will you quit playing around!”

And like a switch being flicked, Ezra suddenly eased off the gas and his grip on the wheel loosened. A small, surprised breath escaped him and he blinked for the first time in a long while.

“Pull over,” Gabriel ordered, and he did without a word.

When they were safely parked on the curb and the engine was switched off, Gabriel unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to his companion. Ezra had the back of his head against the headrest, staring down at the bonnet, arms dropped like forgotten things by his sides. His jaw worked in that way of his, before he sniffed hard and looked down at his lap.

“It was all for nothing,” he said in a small voice. Gabriel just listened in silence, watching him collecting his thoughts. “All this time I’ve been trying my damned hardest to be this poster boy vampire. This version of us that might just be okay. Hell, I’ve killed so many of our kind. So many, I’ve lost count.” He pulled a face of disgust and looked to Gabriel. Red rimmed his eyes. “How sick is that? It’s like they never even mattered. And I did all that for what? For the safety of humans? For the same people who ganged up on us and vandalised our house? Who taunted us and screamed abuse at us in our home? Who killed Dalia?” He blinked and tears fell. He batted them away, smudging them. “How is that okay? How are we still the bad guys?”

Ezra was shaking as he stared at Gabriel, eyes wide and pleading for him to make some sort of sense of this situation.

Gabriel’s shoulders sagged. “It’s because they don’t know us. And they don’t want to try.”

“We got burned. By a cop. In our own fucking hallway.”

“I know.”

“That’s not okay.”

“I know.”

“But we’re supposed to be okay with it?”

“Yeah.”

Ezra shook his head and looked to the road. His eyes shone in the glare of the streetlamp. “Well, I’m not.”